Why I Oughta...

Welp, dahlia tuber FOMO has struck again.  A few days ago, I showed off my Bonny Blooms tuber order and talked about some of the new (to me) dahlias .  And, earlier this month, I posted about how the marketing emails and TikToks and Instagram posts about tubers were getting me antsy about dahlia tuber ordering .  In that post , I showed a number of dahlias that I thought I'd like to try to grow from various growers.  Those growers included Bonny Blooms.  And, Triple Wren Farms.  And...the place that I've bought my dahlia tubers in the past:  Longfield Gardens .   I've had pretty good luck with their tubers - with one (Maarn) being a dud.  They stood by their warranty and sent another set of Maarn Tubers (after the first ones refused to sprout), but the second set were duds, too. In my first dahlia tuber FOMO post , I included a list of some dahlias that others had recommended.  And, in the Longfield Gardens section, I listed a handf...

Five weeks ago, I potted up a number of stored-over-Winter dahlia tubers and a bunch of new-to-us purchased tubers in one-gallon nursery pots . I kept them inside for the month of May and by mid-month many of them were showing signs of life with new growth .  As June began, I started to harden off the dahlias with increasing time outside.  Eventually, leading to leaving them outside, overnight for a few nights.   Then...it was time to plant them.  Here's a look at the dahlias we are growing out on the patio getting hardened off: Hardening off dahlias that we started indoors a month earlier.   I have planted twenty-one (21) dahlia tubers in six locations.  Yes...twenty-one dahlias.  EEEK.  That's A LOT more than last year.   I also gave away three (two Melina Fleur tubers, one Pablo Gallery tuber).  And....Left on the patio are some slow-to-start ones.  These six *might* come to life, or they might be DOA.  This i...

2024 was the year of the dahlia around here.  I went A LOT further with dahlia tubers in 2024 than I've done in the past - including pre-ordering them, starting the tubers indoors, planting them in the ground, trying to prune them/cut the flowers at the right time/place and....most recently....attempting to overwinter some of the tubers - both in Saran Wrap as well as in the ground. Since the pre-ordering thing went so well this past season, I figured while Longfield Gardens was having a sale on their Dahlia tubers, why not order a bunch to arrive in Spring. Last year, I ordered Melina Fleur and Cornell Bronze .   This year, I ordered three varieties:  Maarn Ball Dahlias Sweet Nathalie Decorative Dalias Pablo Decorative Border Dahlias. Below is a screenshot from my order: They arrive in April, but I'm already thinking about where to grow these Dahlias.  The Pablo tubers were a 'bulk order', so I will have a good-sized colony of these (if they're successful...eek...